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User Review of Whisper Hearing Aids

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I’m guessing that, given Whisper is a new design and product, the free hardware may be a one time deal while they work out bugs or find better design after the initial roll out. And to entice new customers! Nothing wrong with that.

In reply to @SpudGunner

Well I’m with you on this, we both know they won’t be able to explain this is “real terms” but they do have one trick up their sleeves “COVID” every business is using it as an excuse for just about everything!
The reviews I’ve read on “whisper” are completely underwhelming to say the least, and thus I’m looking forward to the MK 2 version to make some kind of “game changer” out of it all!

Edited

In reply to @jeffrey

@jeffrey said:

the free hardware may be a one time deal while they work out bugs or find better design after the initial roll out.

@jeffrey: There still has to be a ROI component. Whence do you see that materializing?

Edit: In other words, how do you explain that COGS outflow when there is no matching cash inflow? How do you explain it to shareholders? “Oops! Our 1stGen product was so p1$$ poor that we had to give away 2Gen for free?”

understood! recall that Amazon lost money hand over fist for decades. Of course, Whisper is no Amazon…
Whisper will also have to show investors that folks are actually subscribing/buying. And to do that, they have to deliver on their revolutionary/game changer promise. So far, I don’[t see that. But yes, some folks really like their Whisper! The whole “hearing aid that learns as it goes” thing may really apply to the developers themselves, or anyway this is what I always suspected.

In reply to @billgem

@billgem said:

Other than trials, my only prior experience with hearing aids was with Oticon. I did not receive a single update in my 5 years of ownership of the Opn. The only update, if we can call it that, was the release of the Opn 1 a few years later, but that meant buying a new hearing aid. There were no firmware updates that I was aware of and none were ever discussed with me by my audiologist.

I believe the latest firmware version of the OPN line (not the OPN S) is 6.1 back in 2020, Bill. Like most firmware updates, usually they’re more frequent right after their release to provide bug fixes, and less frequent as times goes on until they cease to exist because the product has become stable enough and no new bug fixes are found or reported. About a year into the OPN line release, Oticon added Tinnitus SoundSupport and Speech Rescue LX into one of its firmware update to the Oticon.

I remember doing at least 2 or 3 firmware updates for my OPN 1 myself via the miniPro wired interface because I’m a guy on my OPN 1. There might have been updates before I acquired my OPN 1 and went the DIY route after that which I wasn’t aware of when it was released about half a year before I bought mine.

Anyway, my point here is that if you did not receive a single update in your 5 years of ownership of the OPN, you can probably blame it squarely on your for not keeping up with you and informing you about it, because it should be your HCP’s responsibility to do this for you. Have you ever asked your HCP if there were new firmware updates for the OPN and if yes, requested an update? Even after your 3 year warranty period ends on the OPN, support from your HCP shouldn’t have ended with it.

I highlight the bold part above in your post just to clarify that you probably meant they released the OPN S (not the OPN 1) a few years later. I just assumed that’s what you meant.

In reply to @billgem

@billgem said:

Other than trials, my only prior experience with hearing aids was with Oticon. I did not receive a single update in my 5 years of ownership of the Opn. The only update, if we can call it that, was the release of the Opn 1 a few years later, but that meant buying a new hearing aid. There were no firmware updates that I was aware of and none were ever discussed with me by my audiologist.

My first Oticon aids were the OPN. When released, there was only the OPN - no levels (1, 2, and 3). Later, my aids were labeled (in software) as OPN 1 - I assume that was after the OPN 2 and 3 levels were released. My notes show at least two firmware versions for my OPN (1) aids:
Software: 6.0 Firmware: au2cs3fw5.16.0
Software: 6.1 Firmware: au2cs3fw5.16.1
The later version was installed in my aids by my provider on 1 Oct 2019 after the aids were returned from service at Oticon with the older firmware.

My next set of Oticon aids were the OPN S 1 that I received in Aug 2019. There have been at least two versions of firmware for those.
Software: 7.0 Firmware auroafw6.16.0 (may be a typo in my notes)
Software: 8.0 Firmware auroafw7.6.2

When I went for an annual check or for fixing issues, my provider always checked the firmware level and updated if one was available. During one visit when we called Oticon support they also had my provider check the firmware level of my ConnectClip - it was at an older level and updated.

My current More 1 aids have had two firmware updates this fall. My new audiologist put the first in without my asking and the second was done after I asked about fixing connectivity issues with my iPhone and the More 1 aids.

Maybe my providers have given better service than usual but I would expect that your provider should have at least offered to update your instruments if you were having issues.

Regarding Whisper coming out with new hardware upgrades, I don’t remember if it were just new hardware for the ear pieces, or if the brain is due to a new hardware upgrade as well?

If the brain is due for a new hardware upgrade as well, while it seems like a good thing, it’s also kinda weird because the whole premise of the Whisper use model is that the brain should have already possessed more than enough processing power and memory capacity and configurability inside to support frequent major updates on a quarterly basis as advertised. So why only after a year or so of rolling out, a new brain hardware upgrade is already necessary, at the expense of having to hold off on the software upgrades? That begs the question of whether the brain was really that robust in the first place?

And upgrading the brain hardware, even if necessary, should not really have caused hold-ups in the progress of continual regular software updates that was a big selling point of the Whisper use model, unless it’s strictly a resource allocation issue due to Whisper being a very small and resource-limited company. Which brings out another point, whether such a small and resource-limited company has the wherewithal to make good on such a new and ambitious paradigm in technology delivery.

Poaching Oticon resources may help in bringing enough clout to help secure funding from the venture capitalists, but it can only carry the company so far before the gig is up. I’m also curious how a small startup like Whisper is able to produce complex hearing aid hardware products in a such a small time span, then go through another round of major hardware upgrade within a year into it. Surely they must be outsourcing their products through some major hearing aid manufacturing company which we don’t know about, as I just don’t see they have the means or facilities to manufacture all this stuff by themselves. Maybe the connection through the poached executives is helping them enable this outsourcing.

I talked with Whisper today. It costs $69 up front for a trial. They promise to refund and send packaging for return. If one buys their system now on the 3 year payment plan they are stuck with the v1 hardware. They now expect the v2 hardware mid 2023.

They do not claim to work for profound losses but say they have some happy customers with those losses.

@prodigyplace said:

If one buys their system now on the 3 year payment plan they are stuck with the v1 hardware. They now expect the v2 hardware mid 2023.

I wonder how they’re going to generate additional sales between now and mid 2023 if people who sign up now are stuck with the v1 hardware, unless the folks who sign up now are unsuspecting and have no clue about the v2 hardware. But usually people who want to try the Whisper solution probably learn about them here on the forum, I would think, so there would be very little unsuspecting newcomers. I wonder if the that Whisper has already been able to sign up so far are given extra motivation to sell harder to keep up with sales quota in light of the v2 hardware coming up in the horizon.

@prodigyplace → Did you ask them about whether they’re still taking in people in their BrainTrust program? Without being able to join this program to get the v2 hardware, who would want to be stuck with their v1 hardware anymore?

@Volusiano said:

Did you ask them about whether they’re still taking in people in their BrainTrust

I did not ask but after I mentioned the people here and Brain Trust he said they had so many people they had to stop accepting any more.

In reply to @Volusiano

@Volusiano said:

I wonder how they’re going to generate additional sales between now and mid 2023 if people who sign up now are stuck with the v1 hardware

You’re assuming that v2 hardware will be priced similarly. There was a substantial price drop- 6 months ago?- which may have been due to the upcoming end-of-life of the first generation hardware. If the current price is at the limit of someone’s budget and they need aids now there’s a case that could be made.

In reply to @Volusiano

Vintage @Volusiano, spreading FUD largely based on conjecture and gratuitous musings.

Even large companies have resource limitations. You should know that.

I believe that both the earpieces and the Brain are being revised. The Brain is apparently being made smaller. I’m sure you’ll be able to spin that negatively.

Edited

In reply to @Volusiano

@Volusiano said:

I wonder how they’re going to generate additional sales between now and mid 2023 if people who sign up now are stuck with the v1 hardware,

@Volusiano: I’m still trying to figure out where the cash is going to come from to pay dividends with an appropriate risk premium for this venture. Edit Who’s going to pay big bucks to acquire this “flash-in-the pan” startup that can’t even keep its insipid website up to date? And an IPO? Who will want shares in such a company?

Initially, I couldn’t make sense of Whisper’s business model. The free hardware and software generated a decent value proposition for the device user, but not for the shareholders.

Later on, my mind began to come around to the notion that Whisper was the classic “evergreen” business model with a cash flow extending into perpetuity, an ever-expanding customer base, and - like AT&T - a growing inventory of company-owned and controlled plant and equipment (brains and earpieces) robust enough to serve traffic consisting of increasingly complex network “traffic” (i.e. sound processing algorithms) for a number of years, requiring only periodic refurbishment (software upgrades) rather than complete replacement [replacing all Velox-platformed equipment (to use Oticon products simply for illustration ) with Polaris- based units through a program of enforced obsolescence].

I saw ROI as a function of a growing revenue stream sitting atop a business model requiring fewer and fewer capital costs to generate said revenue stream. The gap between revenues and operating costs could be made ever-wider, this ensuring a generous profit margin for the investors. It all seemed to make sense…

Thus, so framed in my mind, it all began to conform to reason: a perfect, evergreen profit-generating model. But now, sans subscription fees, sans Brains with longevity, sans rapid software enhancement rollouts, and sans the previous reassurance that early adopters would be protected from premature obsolescence, what kind of value proposition does Whisper now present to its target market - or to its investors (both existing and potential)?

So. I’m boggled again, and looking - not for spin - but a business rationale that will hold water and withstand the rigours of the marketplace - and cut me a dividend cheque!

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